Week 14: Review Week and Review of my Progress

This week has been review week and I have had a chance to improve some of my work which I have submitted before, I was happy that I was given the chance to to improve my work so that I could try to achieve a higher grade. I believe that I have followed the improvement steps which I was given to improve my work and that I have now resubmitted my improved work, I believe that by having the chance to improve my work I have learnt more about responding to feedback and improvements steps and I have shown how I can do this within a week.

Review of Progress:
Over the past 14 weeks I have learnt many new skills and I am very happy with the amount of new skills which I have learnt, I have learnt how to use new programmes, such as Encore, as I had never used this programme before and I feel pleased that I have been able to create a DVD Menu using this programme. I have also learnt many new skills in Photoshop and I have also been able to use this programme to create the DVD Menu Pages, I have learnt about DVD Menus, as from my research this has helped me to understand the features used within DVD Menus for me to create my own DVD Menu. I have also learnt how to create an animation which I included within my final DVD. Another skill which I have learnt is how to use this website, Blogger, I have enjoyed being able to Blog about what I have learnt and this records and shows my progress through the past weeks. Overall, I am happy with the skills I have learnt and the progress which I have made.

Week 13: Research into Features For Television Adverts

On Wednesday we were introduced to the practical side of our new assignment of creating a 30 second television advert, we have 4 products to choose from to create an advert, these were Kit Kat, Diet Coke, Sure Deodorant and a Mobile Phone.
We have been asked to create an idea for one of these products and I have chosen to create an idea for a new Kit Kat advert, I have been asked to research into different aspects of Television Adverts and to research into the aspects which may be involved within my own idea for a TV Advert.

Product: Kit Kat Bar

These aspects include:

• Theme: I am researching into different Television Advert themes and I am also researching into existing chocolate bar adverts and I will be analysing the themes which are used within these adverts, as this helps me in understanding the themes within these types of adverts. The meaning of themes within Television Adverts is that they make you feel something, for example if you were watching an advert such as the Cheryl Cole Shampoo advert, this would make the viewer feel as though that if they buy this product they will be able to have hair like Cheryl Cole and many people feel as though they would love to have hair like Cheryl Cole. These are the types of themes which run within adverts and the point within a theme is for the audience to feel as though they have to get the product which is being promoted because of a certain message within the advert.

• Style: Within an advert the style is important as this is the way in which the advert comes across as this is a way in which people will be able to remember the advert and therefore the product will sell as people remember the advert. The style of the advert does not have to be straight forward such as the advert selling the product directly to you with no narrative or anything interesting happening within the advert itself. So therefore a style which may be used within an television advert is a style such as a music video, as this makes the advert interesting to watch and therefore this helps promote and represent the product well as people will remember the advert for this certain style which is used within the advert. I am going to research into the different styles used within television adverts which use different styles to see the different ways in which a product can be presented within a Television Advert.

• Technology Involved: This is also an important factor within TV Adverts as within creating an advert there are many aspects which involve the technical side, I am therefore going to research into what technology is involved within creating a Television Advert and this will therefore help me in understanding the technology which is involved.

• Technical Aspects

 1) Editing
 2) Camera/Lighting
 3) Sound Effects
 4) Special Effects
 5) MISE-EN-SCENE
All of the above points are the technical aspects which we as creators have control over, as we are able to control the editing side of the production, the camera, as when the advert is filmed we decide the camera angles which are featured and also the way in which it is filmed. Another aspect which we are able to control is the sound effects and special effects within the advert, as when it comes to editing the piece of film to make into the advert you are able to decide what sound effects and what special effects you want to use within the advert. The MISE-EN-SCENE is another technical aspect as this involves the 'staging' of the advert when in the filming stage, as this involves the props and the whole production when the advert is being filmed. All of these aspects are important and I am going to research into each one and also research into adverts which use these different effects and relate them back to my idea which I have for a new Kit Kat Advert.

We have also been asked to carry out a Content Analysis, which is when you are able to watch Television Adverts which are similar to the product which you are promoting within your idea for a TV Advert and you can see what each adverts involves within them. For example, as I am researching and looking at different chocolate adverts I would see what the main elements within them are.

From this I am going to start the research into the above points to create an idea for a new advert and I will also have more knowledge in understanding the way in which television adverts are created and the features within them.

Week 13: DVD Menu Completed and Burnt to Disc

I have now completed my DVD Menu work and I have burnt my DVD Menu from Encore to disc and I am very pleased with the way in which the quality of the DVD Menu on the computer screen has been kept the same when the DVD Menu appears on the Television. On the television screen the full impact of the DVD Menu is shown and as this is in Wide screen this shows the effect of the DVD Menu being professional and the colours within the DVD Menu show very clearly, which is important for the DVD Menu as this is one of the main features which links in with the whole genre and theme together. Another feature which I was very happy with was that the images which I included within my DVD Menu all kept the best and same quality from the time I took them, as throughout the project I was referring to my Contingency plan as one of the points on this was to check that the all the resolution and acquired features were correct for the resolution and quality was kept the same. Therefore I did this and this is the reason why the images within the DVD Menu Pages appeared to be good quality when shown on the Television, I was happy with the quality of my DVD Menu and I am happy with the rollovers and other features within my DVD Menu.
I am very happy with my DVD Menu and I have completed all the written work for this project and I have completed my Evaluation which was a chance for me to reflect on my progress on this project and the skills which I have learnt from the past 3 months.

Week 12: Skills Profile Review

Over the past 12 weeks I have learnt many new skills and some of these skills include:

• Using Photoshop in an advanced manner: I have learnt how to use Photoshop correctly and in more depth, as on my first Skills Profile on this blog I stated that I had used Photoshop in the past but I wanted to learn more skills within Photoshop. As before I was never shown correctly how to use Photoshop and being able to use this programme and being shown the tools and techniques which can be used within Photoshop to edit a photo has really helped, as I have been able to use these skills on different parts of the DVD Menu Project.
• I also believe I have created a film poster within Photoshop which presents the features which should be within a Film Poster and from my original Skills Profile Post I commented that I wished to create a film poster using the different skills within Photoshop to create a film poster with all the features, so I therefore believe I have done that.
• Another skill which I have learnt is from my research into digital graphics I have learnt how to gain secondary research and how to reference this correctly, also through the digital graphics research I learnt a lot about graphics, including the difference between Raster and Vector Images, how the quality of a camera affects the resolution of the image and the difference between CMYK and RGB (as I have used these two different colour formats throughout my project).
• I now also have knowledge into different DVD Formats, DVD Regions and which regions are used within other countries. I have also researched and have knowledge in the way in which DVD Menus are presented, as by comparing different DVD Menus I have been able to analyse these which helped me in creating my DVD Menu.
• Another skill which I have learnt is how to set up a canvas correctly within Photoshop ( International Paper, A4, Resolution 100/150) and I also learnt how to set up the film and video canvas within Photoshop to create my DVD Menu Pages.
• The next skill which I have learnt is how to use file types correctly, as there are many different file types which can be used and through carrying out my own research I researched into different file types for the digital graphics investigation exercise and some of these files included PSD's, which are Photoshop file and keep the layers within the file so the file can be edited. Another well known file is JPEG, this is the main image file type and is easy to use as they are small file types and can be used in places such as websites and blogs, as they are easy to work with.
• A new main skill which I have learnt is how to use Adobe Encore, I had never used this programme before and I found that the booklets which we were given to help us by carrying out the exercises within them in Encore helped as the exercises showed the basics for us to create our DVD Menu. I am happy with the new skill which I have learnt within Encore and the tutorials which we were given about the programme also helped in learning how to use the programme.

Overall, I am happy with the new skills which I have learnt and I hope to keep developing these skills, but from the first 12 weeks I believe I have learnt many new skills.